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Drink

Rice Water

Rice water is a beverage made by soaking rice in water, optionally flavored with cream, sugar, or other flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Rice Water

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Rice Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Combine the rice and salt in the cold water.

  2. Cook for one hour or until the rice is soft.

  3. Add cream, sugar, and flavoring if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch leaches into the water, giving the liquid body and a mild grain flavor.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel to the finished water.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, balancing the plain flavor of the starchy liquid.

The step that matters

Cook until the rice is soft. Starch and flavor only move into the water as the grains break down while heating. Stopping too early leaves the liquid thin and bland, so check that the rice is truly soft before finishing.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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